Broadband plans takes shape in East Texas towns

A series of meetings this month in East Texas will mark formal steps to draft a county-by-county broadband plan for the region.

The East Texas Regional Broadband Initiative is a 14-county project led by the East Texas Council of Governments or ETCOG alongside the consultancy of Connected Texas, which aims to advance technology in rural Texas.

“What we’re going to do is to show a vision of a rural renaissance of what East Texas can look like with a broadband infrastructure, both in terms of quality of life and economic prosperity,” Dallas-based Turner said.

ETCOG’s research manager Nanette Stephens says there are parts of East Texas that don’t have internet access or are underserved with few options. Before investing in fiber optic cable and towers, according to Stephens, it’s important to understand the broadband situation of each county and get face-to-face input from residents and businesses.

“Providers can go out there and place something, but is that really what that is needed? We need the input from the community as a whole,” Stephens said.

Stephens says it could take up to a year to draft individual county plans and fold that into a regional broadband vision. She says grants and other funding to carry out each plan will be tackled in the next phase.